Dangerous Inheritance (6 page)

‘My privilege. Is it not customary at American universities when invited to join a group of any kind to, as they say, pay one's footing?'

Truss was furious, but Fleur thought it most amusing that he had been outwitted into accepting their coloured companion's hospitality and put in a position where Douglas, as she now called him, could reasonably expect to be asked to accompany them when next they went dancing.

Their good nights when they got back to the villa were formal; but half an hour later, still angry and determined to have the matter out with Fleur, in dressing gown and slippers Truss tiptoed along to her room. To his surprise and annoyance he found her door locked. Gently he tapped on it, but there was no reply. Several times he tapped again, but he dared not knock louder and there was still no response; so having hung about for ten frustrated minutes he made his way disconsolately back to his own room.

Next morning he tried, but without success, to get Fleur on her own. Then, after lunch, as it was Sunday, they all went to the little township of Gastouri, which was only a mile away, to see the dancing.

Partly from ancient custom, and partly now as a tourist attraction, the peasants still performed their national dances in the main street. The women wore bodices with full white sleeves under jackets of richly coloured velvet encrusted with gold embroidery. Their hair was most elaborately dressed over a double pair of semi-circular pads, decked with many gold
ornaments and framed behind by an oblong of stiff, beautifully worked muslin. They danced sedately in a slow-moving, outward-facing circle, while the men, more soberly clad, leapt and gyrated with extraordinary vigour inside it.

As the Corfiote peasantry were still deeply religious, with few exceptions they attended the services held by their bearded, black-robed priests in the little white churches, each with its separate square belfry tower, on Sunday mornings; but after their midday meal they started to dance and continued, apparently indefatigable, till well into the evening.

Leaving them still hard at it, the party returned to the villa; then Truss and Fleur, accompanied by Douglas Rajapakse, went down to bathe. The hour they spent disporting themselves on the rocks and in the sea added fuel to Truss's anger, for Douglas proved to be an excellent swimmer; and while his lithe brown body streaked far out to lie floating near Fleur's pink one for what seemed to Truss an endless time, he was compelled to remain splashing about in the shallows on the submerged rock shelf.

It was not until after dinner, when the Duke took Rajapakse to his library to talk to him again about the inheritance, that Truss at last succeeded in getting Fleur to himself. As soon as they were alone, he asked:

‘Why did you lock me out last night?'

‘To teach you manners,' she replied promptly.

‘Thanks; but I was taught those by my family.'

‘Then they must be jolly disappointed with you as a pupil. Douglas couldn't have behaved better if he had gone to Eton, whereas you acted as though you'd been brought up in a slum. You ought to be ashamed of yourself.'

‘Now listen, honey,' Truss said earnestly. ‘I know you're full of advanced ideas, and I sympathise with most of them. After all, the Rights of Man has been our Bible in the States for generations. Who's rooted for equality and all it stands for, all these years, if not Uncle Sam? And look at the billions we hand out to help underprivileged peoples get themselves a better life. But this colour question is a thing apart. In the deep South, where I come from, it's become a real menace.'

‘Why?'

‘Because whites and niggers just don't mix. That's why. They're a different species, and no happiness comes out of mixed marriages. That's not a theory. It's hard experience.'

‘Who's talking about marriage, anyway?'

‘That's what the abolition of segregation leads to, inevitably. If you have nigger kids schooling with whites, by the time they're teenagers some of them are certain to start necking.'

‘Douglas is not a nigger. And even if he were he would still be a human being with the same instincts, feelings and aspirations as you and me.'

‘About that I don't agree. The psychology of blacks and whites is entirely different, and although he's not a negro he is an Asiatic; so his mind is utterly unlike ours.'

‘You're talking nonsense, Truss. If one could change the colour of his skin he would pass anywhere as an English gentleman.'

‘Pass maybe. But that's not the point. His mental processes are different, and the colour of his skin is the outward sign of that. A line has got to be drawn somewhere, and that line is colour.'

‘You are for Apartheid, then; like those beastly whites in South Africa?'

‘What's so terrible about that?'

‘Sakes alive, honey! It's unthinkable.'

‘Well, this isn't the States, and if I choose to dance with Douglas you can't stop me.'

‘I know; I know. But don't you see that for any white girl to become familiar with a coloured man is letting the side down? Give them an inch and they'll take an mile. Thats just what we're up against. As long as they were regarded as inferiors, which they are, everything was all right, and they were perfectly content. But in recent times so many misguided people have encouraged them to think they are as good as us that they are getting
the bit between their teeth and demanding what they call their “rights”.'

‘They are their “rights”,' replied Fleur angrily. ‘The right of every human being to be regarded as the equal of all others. Anyway, until you are prepared to treat Douglas as your equal you needn't expect to sleep with me again.'

‘Oh come, honey. You're not going to lock your door against me tonight. I want you, and want you bad.'

‘I am. But not for that reason.'

‘Then why, if I do my best to forget the colour of his skin?'

‘For a perfectly good feminine one which you ought to be old enough to guess,' Fleur replied. And, turning, she walked rapidly away.

On thinking the matter over Truss derived a sop of comfort from the thought that, after all, this was Corfu, not Charleston nor, for that matter, anywhere else in the States where a girl of good family seen dancing with a coloured man would have been ostracised by her acquaintances. He then decided that if he was to regain Fleur's goodwill he must swallow the prejudice with which he had been brought up and make himself pleasant to the Sinhalese; so the following morning he suggested that they should take Douglas in to see the town.

On this occasion they went into the Metropolis, as the Greek Orthodox Cathedral is called, in which is enshrined the body of St. Theodora; then into the Church of St. Spyridion, Corfu's patron saint, whose body lies there in a great silver sarcophagus. Both buildings were rich with paintings in elaborately carved gilt frames, mosaics, ikons and chandeliers; and moving sedately about were numerous black-robed priests wearing their high, flat-crowned hats and with their hands clasped in front of them.

In St. Spyridion one of the priests gave them a smiling greeting and showed them round, then told them the story of the saint. His birthplace had been Cyprus and he had performed a miracle while attending the famous Council of Nicaea. He had died in the year 350 and a hundred and one years later, on sweet-smelling odours emanating from his grave, his body had been exhumed and installed in his church at Timython. When
Cyprus fell to the Saracens the saint's body had been secretly conveyed to Constantinople, but that city also fell in 1453.

A priest named George Kalaichairetis had determined to save the body, together with that of St. Theodora; so he had stuffed both into sacks and loaded them, one either side, on a donkey. Pretending the sacks held only fodder, the courageous George had made his way through Infidel-held Greece and eventually reached Corfu. There, these holy relics had been received with due veneration and as, soon afterwards, the Corfiotes attributed the cessation of a plague to St. Spyridion, they had made him their patron.

In his will George had left the body of St. Spyridion to his two eldest sons and that of St. Theodora to the youngest. After three generations the testaments of the brothers had led to St. Theodora becoming the property of the Church, but a niece named Asimene had inherited St. Spyridion and on her marrying a Corfiote noble named Bolgaris it had passed to that family, who had continued to own it and receive the rich revenue in offerings that it brought right up to the present day.

On leaving the church, Fleur, Truss and Douglas drove out to the Castello, a fine crenellated pseudo-mediaeval building with a lofty tower, some miles to the north-west of the town, that had been turned into a hotel. While the waiter was getting them their drinks Truss remarked:

‘What an extraordinary thing that a priest should have considered the bodies of two saints to be his personal property, and that a private family should still be making a big income out of one of them.'

Fleur shrugged. ‘It's even more surprising that in this day and age hordes of people should still believe that they can do any good for themselves by paying good money to venerate a casket full of old bones.'

‘Such beliefs die hard,' said Douglas. ‘Many wealthy Buddhists in Ceylon who have been educated at universities continue to make rich gifts to the Temple of the Tooth at Kandy.'

‘It is the Buddhists who are responsible for the persecution of the Tamils, isn't it?' Fleur asked.

He nodded. ‘Yes, the Buddhists are a big force in the “Everything for the Sinhalese” movement. After years of sloth there was a strong Buddhist revival in the 1880s. They argued that when Ceylon was a Sinhalese kingdom Buddhism had enjoyed a privileged position, whereas under the British it had been usurped by the Christian religion. It is true, of course, that pupils educated in Christian schools got all the best jobs, because they were taught English.

‘As long as British rule continued the Buddhists got no redress for their grievance, but when Ceylon received independence there came another great upsurge of Buddhist feeling, and in 1950 Buddhist leaders from all over the world assembled in Ceylon to inaugurate the World Fellowship of Buddhists. After that our Buddhists began to agitate in a big way for the official language to be changed. Neither Senanayake nor Kotelawala would give in but Bandaranaike got elected largely on that ticket, and two months later the “Sinhala Only” Bill was passed.

‘Not unnaturally the Tamils began to kick. They organised strikes and riots in which quite a number of people were killed; so Bandaranaike reached a compromise with Chelvanayakam that a limited use of Tamil should be permitted in certain provinces, and various other matters. It is his having recently gone back on his pact that is causing the present trouble.'

‘The Tamils are Hindus, aren't they?' said Fleur.

‘Yes; they first invaded Ceylon from southern India many centuries ago, and there was a time when in the north of the island there were Tamil Kings. But there was another great influx in the latter part of the last century, and it still continues because Ceylon is a richer country than the part of India they come from, and our estate owners are glad to employ Tamils because they work much harder than the Sinhalese.'

Stubbing out a cigarette, Douglas went on, ‘I should, perhaps, explain that there are two types of Tamils: those who are the descendants of the original invaders and the much more recent immigrants whom we call “Indian Tamils”. Under the old constitution all Tamils had the vote and some of the up-country constituencies even sent Indian Tamils to Parliament.
But Bandaranaike's Government has deprived them of their citizenship, which makes them virtually “stateless persons”, and it has also brought in laws that deprive them of the right to own land. As there are nearly a million of them, that is a very serious matter; and naturally the Ceylon Tamils give them every possible support.'

That evening at dinner the Duke said to Richard, ‘Mr. Rajapakse has now given me all the information he can about my unexpected inheritance so I expect his business commitments will necessitate his shortly returning to Ceylon. But before he leaves us I think he ought to see a little more of this lovely island; so perhaps you would care to take him for a run round it tomorrow.'

Douglas gave a little bow. ‘You are most kind, sir. But I was due for some leave, and having come here at your request I can now think of no more enjoyable way of spending it than in Corfu. In the meantime, of course, my partners will be looking after your interests in Ceylon.' Turning to Richard he added, ‘If it is convenient to you, sir, a trip round the island tomorrow would be delightful; then in the evening I will move down to a hotel in the town.'

Truss had been consoling himself with the thought that within a day or two he would be relieved of Rajapakse's unwelcome presence altogether, so he found this new development most displeasing. A moment later his annoyance was turned to silent fury, for de Richleau said:

‘No, no. You will do no such thing. You make a most pleasant addition to our company. I shall be happy for you to remain here as my guest for as long as you like.' And Douglas gratefully accepted.

Next day, leaving only the Duke behind, they drove across the centre of the island and through a fertile plain watered by Corfu's only sizable river to Sidar, at the west end of the north coast. Near the little town, where the river enters the Adriatic, there are some remarkable formations of smooth, flat, tiered rocks that have been eroded into layers by the sea. They bathed from them, then picnicked and lay baking themselves in the sun.

Later in the week they made another expedition, through Corfu then along the poor but picturesque coast road that runs below Mount Pantokrator, the highest mountain in the island, right round the big gulf to the beautiful cypress-fringed bay of Kouloura. From there, in the crystal-clear air, the coast of Albania looked only a stone's throw away, and it was surprising to think that through all the centuries of strife the Infidel had never succeeded in crossing in force such a narrow strait.